


The Learning Curve

by dyingpoet



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Brotherly Affection, Brotherly Bonding, Canon Era, Fluff, Pre-Canon, jack is a great big bro dont @ me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 10:37:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18150764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dyingpoet/pseuds/dyingpoet
Summary: Jack helps out a few of the new kids while they get settled in





	The Learning Curve

**Author's Note:**

> for a trade w @a-hundred-voices-singing on tumblr!!! hope u like it bb!!!

“Get used to it, kid.”

Jack made the mental note to clock Blink later, it wasn’t the new kid’s fault he was in a bad mood that particular morning, chock that up to Race winning most of his money last night actually. But, from across the room Jack could see Romeo’s face fall, and he let it go for now and approached the bed the kid was sitting on. 

“Hey, Romeo right?”

Romeo looked up, eyes widening at the sight of Jack, and he nodded before looking back down at the floor. 

Jack sat down next to him and chuckled to himself. “Racer sure was proud comin’ up with that one, got it from some old book I guess. Says he read it but I ain’t ever seen him read nothin’ but the papes, on a good day.”

Romeo smiled and swung his back and forth in front of him; the kid was young, and small too, his feet didn’t even touch the floor, and he reminded Jack a little bit of Crutchie when he was younger. 

“Yeah, Racetrack’s funny.”

Encouraged by his response, Jack kept going, waving off Mush when he raised an eyebrow at the pair of them on his way out the door; they were probably going to be late to distribution, but he didn’t care all that much. 

“He sure thinks so, kid runs his mouth all the way across the river, even tries to sweet talk Spot Conlon, but ya didn’t hear it from me. 

Romeo looked up and gaped at Jack. “He knows _Spot Conlon_?”

“Oh yeah, he hounds the guy every other day,” Jack said, bumping Romeo’s shoulder lightly with his own and ruffling his hair. “I hear he’s been teachin’ him how to play poker, too, even though the kid cheats more than anybody out on the street."

At the thought of that Romeo giggled a bit, and Jack broke into a grin at the sight of the kid perking up. He hopped off the bed and kneeled down in front of the smaller boy, jerking his head back and towards the door. “And I hear he’s needin’ a sellin’ partner for a little while, too, was askin’ for ya.”

“He was?” Romeo asked, a note of happiness mixed in with the surprise. “Really?”

Jack nodded. “Oh yeah, I mean, he’s probably the  _ second _ best newsie we got right now, but he’s good enough for teachin’ ya.”

Romeo tilted his head as he got off the bed himself, sticking to Jack’s side as they both started for the door. “Who’s the best?”

“You’re lookin’ at him, kid.”

The kid let out another good laugh as they left lodging, the last two to leave actually, and Jack brightened at being the one to cause it. Once the kid was off with Race he would still knock Blink one, though.

* * *

 

Crutchie stirring next to Jack pulled him out of sleep, and when he opened his eyes blearily, he saw Crutchie propping himself up on his elbow and looking toward the ladder that lead up to the roof. 

“What is it Crutch?”

Crutchie’s hair was sticking up every which way when he turned back to Jack, eyebrows knitted into a frown. “I think someone’s down there.”

“On the fire escape?”

Crutchie nodded and started to pull himself up when Jack put a hand on his shoulder and gently pulled him back down, the kid hadn’t been sleeping enough lately. “Go back to sleep, I got it.”

It looked like he was going to argue, but closed his mouth when Jack shot him a look, mumbling and laying his head back down as Jack got up. 

Yawning, he made his way over to the ladder and craned his head to look down it. It was probably around three in the morning, but a lot of the boys got nightmares, and Race barely ever got a full night’s sleep, so he wasn’t all that surprised to see someone huddled against the bottom of the ladder.

He was surprised a little at who it was, though.

“Finch? That you?”

The kid at the bottom looked up, it was Finch, and started moving toward the window when he saw Jack. “Sorry, I’ll go-”

Jack had already started down the ladder and shook his head as he gripped the metal. “Wait up.”

When he got down Finch had moved to press himself against the side of the fire escape farthest Jack, and had his knees drawn all the way up to his chest. He’d only been in lodging about a week so far and Jack hadn’t got around to talking to him all that much yet, he looked scared.

“What’s goin’ on, kid?” Jack asked, stretching his legs out in front of him and dropping his shoulders, a trick he’d learned from Specs to make himself look smaller. “Tryin’ ta get an extra head start before the bell rings?”

Finch forced out a nervous exhale of a laugh and shook his head quickly, eyes flicking up to meet Jack’s, and then moving to look up at the sky above them. “Nah, just not tired I guess.”

Jack cocked his head and scooted forward a little more to bridge the gap between them. “Ya sure? I thought you and Henry were both out before I went up.”

Finch started to respond, but faltered before anything could get out and sighed, still not looking at Jack. “Yeah, just woke up from a dream I had.”

“Dream or nightmare?” Jack pressed softly, trying and failing to make eye contact with the younger boy. “Lotta kids around here get nightmares, I’m actually surprised you’se the only one out here tonight.”

“Yeah?” Finch asked, finally looking at Jack, slightly less fearful than before. “Honest?”

Jack nodded quickly. “Oh yeah, even the older guys who’ve been sellin’ for a long time.”

Relaxing a little, Finch let his knees drop from his chest and stretched them out next to Jack’s, popping his knuckles and fiddling with his hands as he did. “I haven’t had ‘em for a while, just started comin’ back once I started sellin’, I guess.”

“Where was you before this?” Jack asked, remembering when he’d shown up last week with Albert who’d just said he’d ran into him on the street.

“Orphanage.”

Jack let out a knowing hum, having heard a lot of stories about orphanages from some of the boys, they weren’t all that great. “Couple’a guys here ran off from orphanages.”

Finch nodded slow, biting his lip and looking at the horizon behind Jack in silence for a while before coming back with something. “It ain’t too good in there, guess I just keep rememberin’.”

There was a pained look on his face and guilt washed over Jack for some reason. He remembered what that was like, for the first few months after he got out of the Refuge he couldn’t sleep for anything. It’d been hell. 

“I used to get real bad nightmares, like that,” Jack offered, continuing when Finch looked at him timidly. “Yeah, a while back, the old leader, Paulie, actually got me doin’ something to get ‘em to quit.”

“What was it?”

Jack waved a hand up to the ladder he was leaning against and looked up. “Got me sleepin’ up there, said the fresh air would help me sleep. Sure did, too.”

Wistfully, Finch followed Jack’s look and he heard a small sigh leave him. 

“You wanna come up?” Jack asked carefully. “It’s just me and Crutch, and there’s plenty’a room for anybody else.”

Finch frowned, regarding Jack cautiously. “I don’t wanna put ya out-”

“Wouldn’t offer if ya were.”

He thought it over, biting the inside of his Jack as he looked from Jack to the rooftop and back a few times. “Alright, just ‘til I’m sleepin’ good again, if that’s okay.”

Standing, Jack offered a hand to pull Finch up and moved aside to let him get up the ladder first. “‘Course, kid.”

* * *

 

There was the usual chorus of ‘watch it’s' coming from about six different newsies when Race barreled up the stairs into the bunk room, a stupid grin on his face as he bounced their newest kid, Elmer, on his back in a piggyback. 

Walking over to Jack, he looked up at the tired kid above him and kept the smile up. “Kid’s a hit Jackie! Sellin’ magnet if I ever saw one.”

Elmer nodded with a yawn and slid off Race’s back, flopping down on Jack’s bed and laying back; he was awful friendly for someone new, Jack had noticed. 

“I dunno why you’se always complainin’ Race,” Elmer mumbled through a yawn, “it don’t seem that hard.”

Race snorted and squeezed the kid’s knee, getting a squeak of laughter out of him. “Yeah, yeah, you’se sayin’ that now, while you got the cute little kid thing goin’ on, just wait.”

“I ain’t cute!” Elmer shot back as he sat up, bumping into Jack on his way and scowling at Race. “Or little.”

Jack bit back a smile at that one while Race didn’t even try and hold his back. He was only thirteen, and Jack newly fourteen, but Elmer couldn't have been more than eight even though he was claiming more. And he  _ was  _ awful cute, made great sales off of it. 

“Yeah, whatever ya say, shortstuff.”

Race walked off, heading for the card game that some of the other guys had started up, and left Elmer sitting next to Jack, still pouting a little.

“Hey,” Jack said, wrapping an arm around the kid’s shoulders, “stay lookin’ little for as long as ya can, kid, make good money that way.”

Elmer rolled his eyes, hair flopping down into his face as he did and Jack brushed it off his eyes. “I ain’t that little.”

“Sure are.”

“Am not!” Elmer protested, frowning up at Jack, who was barely able to keep a straight face at how indignant he looked. “I’m almost as old as Crutchie, and nobody makes him sell with them.”

“You wanna sell by yourself?” Jack asked, raising his eyebrows when Elmer nodded. “Shoot kid, you barely been here a week.”

Elmer shrugged, yawning again as he did. “I know how to do it, Race showed me.”

“Yeah well, Race ain’t that good,” Jack said with a light laugh, jostling Elmer’s shoulders when he remained stoic. “C’mon, you’ll be out there soon enough, we make most everyone wait until they’re ten ‘til they can go out on their own.”

When Elmer huffed again, Jack shoved lightly at his chest so he fell back against the bed and squeezed his knee like Race had, getting a similar squeak and kick in response. “See? You ain’t that mad.”

“That ain’t fair- _ Jackie _ !”

**Author's Note:**

> ahhhh i love writing brotherly shit for these BOYS!!!! and i hope yall liked reading it!!!! hmu on @dying-poet on tumblr if u wanna request stuff :)) 
> 
> as always, like/comment if u enjoyed!!!!!


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